ICMIC@Stanford

Course Work

The ICMIC@Stanford Career Development Program is designed to be as flexible as possible to attract highly qualified candidates with the passion and ability to make an impact on cancer research that will benefit patient care in terms of diagnosis, therapy, and monitoring. This overarching theme will guide the process of candidate selection and lead to successfully trained individuals who will be capable of leading their own independent research teams in the field of molecular imaging cancer research. ICMIC@Stanford has a carefully constructed career development program supported by extremely well qualified faculty with years of experience in teaching, research, mentoring and clinical patient care. In addition to the interdisciplinary ICMIC@Stanford faculty members, our program will also include the entire MIPS faculty of both full and associate members who will be available for mentoring.

The candidates who will be invited to join this program will be well trained in basic science or in imaging science and will have an energy and drive to impact the growing field of molecular imaging cancer research. We will strive to recognize and pursue those applicants who demonstrate a passion for solving cancer puzzles through the merger of molecular imaging and molecular biology. The accepted candidates will benefit greatly from the cross-disciplinary nature of this program, with access to the specialized resources and a diverse population of potential mentors. The required coursework (see below) will complement their research efforts, giving these developing scientists an overview of the latest research in the molecular imaging field. This coursework will also present them with opportunities for interaction with many of the ICMIC@Stanford and MIPS faculty and for developing their research interests. The fellows will also benefit from the Stanford research community, with the potential of interacting with other fellows in the many existing training programs in imaging and cancer-related research. The ICMIC@Stanford career development program will result in scientists who are well-trained in the cross-disciplinary nature of molecular imaging in cancer research and will be prepared for establishing productive research efforts in these fields.

With the ICMIC@Stanford we will train candidates who are interested in the study of the imaging sciences and cancer biology with a focus on multimodality molecular imaging as it applies to the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cancer patients. Under the ICMIC@Stanford umbrella individuals committed to the program, either as mentors or as trainees can expect to benefit by having access to and by being exposed to a broad range of intertwined disciplines. Our primary goal is to train and "produce" scientists who are committed to leading their own independent research groups. Although there may be an exceptional graduate student who will qualify as a trainee in the program, we expect most of our trainees to be further along in their careers. Interested individuals will have had some exposure to molecular biology, imaging sciences, or cancer research and thereby have developed an interest in molecular imaging, and would like to focus on combining imaging, cancer biology, chemistry, and physics.

Trainees will have a wide range of courses available to them but will only be required to participate in the courses and seminars. Other formal coursework, if needed, will depend on the candidate's background, experience, and interests. Because these individuals will join our program as seasoned professionals it will be important not to spend inordinate amounts of time in a classroom. Coursework will only be necessary for those individuals who feel the need to "fill an academic gap". Much of the important exposure and training for trainees will occur through one-on-one interaction with mentors and their research groups.

Instruction focusing on cancer, cell/molecular biology, and molecular imaging will be delivered primarily through routinely scheduled seminars and journal clubs. Faculty from the following disciplines will contribute key components to the Career Development Program in the form of classes, seminars, or one on one instruction: Radiology/Molecular Imaging/Nuclear Medicine, Medicine/Oncology, Pediatrics/Neonatology, Microbiology & Immunology, Biological Sciences, Radiation Oncology, Bioengineering and Computational Sciences. In addition to the faculty who will be directly involved in the ICMIC@Stanford, there are other members in the MIPS program who are involved in their own funded cancer research projects. Tapping into the added MIPS faculty will allow the program to broaden its potential for further interaction and mentoring between faculty and trainees.

Student location could change as the student gains exposure to ICMIC faculty, becomes familiar with specialized resources, begins to focus in a specific area, and as the program expands. We have observed, however, through the Radiological Sciences Laboratory (RSL) Training Grant (Glover, Pelc and Glazer) that being able to maintain students in a centralized location has distinct advantages for the entire group. Co-location of students between two labs tends to foster an environment that promotes a dynamic arena for discussion and exchange of ideas. Such an environment turns into its own important resource providing information about all aspects of the program to all students. If students are simply doled out to specific labs across the medical center that arena for informal discussion, connection, and sense of collegiality could be lost. Students in the RSL group are affiliated with many different faculty throughout the medical center and the Lucas Center but, at the "end of the day", all return to the home base in the Lucas Center. At any time of the day a reasonably high density of students can be found in the Lucas Center, either working at their computers or discussing their research projects with one another or with any of the basic science mentors located in that facility. This is the place where all of the RSL postgraduate and graduate students have their desktop computers, personal desks/workspaces and Friday Happy Hours. As we expand the ICMIC@Stanford program we will work toward a solution that focuses on this very important detail.

The career development efforts of ICMIC@Stanford will be adaptable and capable of responding to change that occurs within the program, within Stanford, and those changes and advances in science occurring at a rapid pace in the world of cancer science at large. Programmatic change in response to these external stimuli will be implemented as needed through consultation and recommendation from the ICMIC@Stanford Executive Committee and Internal Advisory Board.

• Molecular Imaging Course
  
  Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the ICMIC@Stanford we will introduce this new course consisting of weekly seminars presented by many of the faculty mentors involved in the program. An overview of molecular imaging in living subjects will be provided. Basic Physics of each modality, including PET, PET/CT, SPECT, MRI, CT and Optics will be covered along with chemistry and molecular assays to study cellular/molecular events in small animal and clinical models. This course will not only introduce new or review material to students but will also give our faculty an opportunity to describe the goals of ICMIC@Stanford and explain the excitement and potential of merging molecular imaging with cancer biology. This course will be a valuable introductory course that will introduce students both to faculty and to ICMIC@Stanford resources as well and will be offered as a fall semester course (4 units). This class will be open to other Stanford students, including post-docs and graduate students who are not part of the ICMIC@Stanford program. We have already initiated paperwork for formal approval for this course. Please visit the Molecular Imaging Course web site to view the syllabus.


• Integrative Patient Management Working Group
  
  Once a month we will bring together students in this program with students in Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, and Radiological Sciences. The goal of this working group will be to discuss the latest advances in the cancer field by having one student present each time in an area of interest not directly related to their research. In addition 1-3 interesting tumor board cases will be presented so that students may link research back to clinical management of patients. The focus will be integrating molecular imaging with cancer therapeutics so that all the students present might learn how each field plays an important role in the overall management of the patient. The attendance will be expected to be 7-12 trainees per month. The main goal of this course/working group will be to develop strategies for implementing translational science. By bringing together the clinician and the basic scientist to discuss patient issues and research issues, we, as a group, will begin to formally define ways to overtly embrace and support Translational Medicine.


• Annual Retreat in Molecular Imaging
  
  Towards the end of the first year of ICMIC@Stanford funding, we will host an off-site retreat in Monterey to fully evaluate the ICMIC@Stanford program. A portion of the schedule will be set aside to evaluate the Career Development Program. As part of this evaluation process trainees will have the opportunity to present their research in detail. Since all of the ICMIC@Stanford Executive Committee members, Internal Advisory Board members, and External Advisory Board members will be present this will provide an exciting opportunity for trainees to receive comments and input from a number of distinguished experts representing a variety of disciplines.


• Monthly Molecular Imaging Seminar Series
  
  The molecular imaging seminar series was initiated by Sam Gambhir as he arrived at Stanford as a way to bring prominent speakers in the Molecular Imaging field to discuss their research efforts. The seminar series, scheduled once a month, is held in the Clark Auditorium and 55-85 students/residents/fellows/faculty attend each time. Webcasting also exists for this seminar series so that those who can not attend any given lecture are able to see it via the web at any time following the lecture. For example, a recent speaker was Dr. Cliff Ling, head of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He discussed the latest use of positron emission tomography (PET) in imaging tumor hypoxia and predictive ability of response to therapy. An upcoming speaker is Dr. Nick Van Bruggen, head of the imaging division from Genentech who will lecture on the role of multimodality molecular imaging in drug discovery/validation. It is very important that our trainees have a chance to interact with speakers in a smaller setting. Therefore a small group of 4-7 students takes the speaker to lunch; the students then have a chance to ask questions in a less intimidating setting. This is really helpful to students as they learn more about a given topic, get career advice, and network and build contacts that will help with future activities. This is a well established program for students in the MIPS program but ICMIC@Stanford trainees may also choose to participate and interact with speakers.


• Molecular Imaging/Nuclear Medicine Journal Club
  
  Journal club is held every Wednesday morning from 7:30-8:30 am. Approximately 18-30 individuals attend each time. Articles are presented that cover both the basic science of molecular imaging and clinical applications. The web site lists recent articles presented. We encourage students to present articles from other ICMICs around the country, and at least 20% of our articles fit into this category. Graduate students, post-docs, residents, fellows, and faculty all take turns presenting an article. The format of this journal club is arranged so that each person attending has the option of selfassigning to one of the following 4 categories: (1) You have read the article and feel it has significant problematic scientific issues, (2) You have read the article and the article is felt to be solid overall, (3) You have read the article but didn't understand it and (4) You didn't have time to read the article. After the article is presented by the person who selected the article, then a debate occurs between groups 1 and 2. At the end groups 1, 2, and 3 vote for the article as "good overall" or "has significant problems". This format works very well for really engaging trainees and helping them to become more confident in evaluating the literature. It also allows over time for people from different fields (e.g., oncology, radiology, chemistry, cell/molecular biology, pharmacology, physics) to start to speak in ways that everyone can understand. Molecular imaging is a highly interdisciplinary field and it really requires a lot of vocabulary building. The journal club helps to do just that while providing a strong mechanism for trainees to understand how to critique scientific work.


• Molecular Imaging/Nuclear Medicine Grand Rounds
  
  Grand rounds is held every Tuesday morning from 7:30-8:30 am. Approximately 25-35 individuals attend each morning. Speakers from different departments throughout the medical center speak on their research. The emphasis is on clinical research, but we also have basic and translational scientists present. This helps trainees to integrate how molecular imaging is playing a role and may play a future role in various areas of clinical research. It also helps build relationships between various clinical services (e.g., Medical Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Oncology).